There has been plenty of talk about DRM here at Gear Diary lately, especially with regard to ebooks. Well before the advent of MP3s and the web there were plenty of piracy concerns, leading early computer game developers to implement security systems such as the code-wheel shown above (and yes, I have several of these, one for each of the SSI ‘Gold Box’ RPG games I own). The ensuing decades have seen a myriad of different anti-piracy methods utilized across various technologies. As a platform with a high rate of piracy on very expensive products, computer games seem to be at the forefront of trying out new anti-piracy methods. Ubisoft recently announced a new DRM method, and today we get more details of how it will actually work.

The bottom line of Ubisoft’s new DRM is this: you need to be connected to the DRM server to start the game, and unless you are connected your game will quit and you will lose all progress from the last auto-save. There are more details in a ArsTechnica article:

If you’re annoyed when you have to show your receipt to someone when you walk out of an electronics store, Ubisoft is not the company for you. This is like having to show your receipt every time you want to turn on your television. If your Internet goes out, if you’re on a flight with no wireless or don’t want to pay the fee, or if you’re at a hotel that only offers for-pay Internet, you aren’t going to be able to to play your games.

All of this was theoretical until yesterday, when review copies of Assassin’s Creed 2 – the first game using the system – started arriving at review sites. From an article at CVG:

We’ve just received Assassin’s Creed 2 and Settlers VII for review, and verified with Ubisoft that the DRM is the same as the boxed product. If you get disconnected while playing, you’re booted out of the game. All your progress since the last checkpoint or savegame is lost, and your only options are to quit to Windows or wait until you’re reconnected.

The game first starts the Ubisoft Game Launcher, which checks for updates. If you try to launch the game when you’re not online, you hit an error message right away. So I tried a different test: start the game while online, play a little, then unplug my net cable. This is the same as what happens if your net connection drops momentarily, your router is rebooted, or the game loses its connection to Ubisoft’s ‘Master servers’. The game stopped, and I was dumped back to a menu screen – all my progress since it last autosaved was lost.

Ubisoft must be feeling the heat of protest because they have very quickly done an interview with Computer & Videogames Online, and here are some salient points … along with my commentary:

What’s the problem this DRM is trying to address?

Ubi are increasingly concerned about piracy on the PC. “It’s a huge problem – you know it, I know it, other people know it. It really is a very important issue that all serious companies need to address,” says their spokesperson. But they also believe that their online services will make PC gaming better. “The real idea is that if you offer a game that is better when you buy it, then people will actually buy it. We wouldn’t have built it if we thought that it was really going to piss off our customers.”

If they are saying they didn’t think there would be outcry they are either being dishonest or pathetically naive. If these are actually gamers who are knowledgeable about PC gaming then they KNOW how PC gamers would react. They would have seen the outcry over StarForce, TAGES, SecuROM, Bioshock, Steam lock-ins, GfWL, and on and on.

What I think they are doing is testing the limits of customer tolerance. They will see how these games sell, and then decide how to apportion the blame. And because hackers flock to new DRM systems like flies to manure, when (not if) it is cracked, then I am sure that Ubisoft will drop back to the usual ‘blame the pirates’ mantra. Like they do later in the article …

So what’s in it for gamers?

Ubi say there are three advantages to their online services. The first: you don’t need a disc. The second: that you can install the game on as many PCs as you like, as many times as you like. And the third: the automatic uploading of savegames to Ubisoft’s servers.

All of these advantages are provided already using services such as Steam and Impulse, as well as using digital download sites such as those as well as GamersGate and Direct2Drive. The difference – you aren’t booted from any of these sites if your network or theirs flickers momentarily.

Which PC games will require an always on internet connection?

All announced Ubisoft PC games will include the online services, whether sold online, or from brick and mortar stores. That includes Splinter Cell, Silent Hunter 5, Assassin’s Creed 2, Prince of Persia and the newly announced Ghost Recon. “It’s hard for us to say, yes, from now until the day that we all die all of our games are going to include this,” says their spokesperson, “but most will.”

In other words, this might have looked like a trial balloon with Assassin’s Creed 2 based on early reports … but it isn’t. We already have it locked in to EVERYTHING.

What happens if Ubisoft take the DRM servers offline for maintenance, or suffer a technical breakdown?

In the case of a server failure their games will be taken offline, and you’ll be unable to play them. “The idea is to avoid that point as much as possible, but we have been clear from the beginning that the game does need an internet connection for you to play. So if it goes down for real for a little while, then yeah, you can’t play.

”

So … if you ever play games on a laptop and occasionally do so in places where you either are not connected to the internet or are unable to access Ubisoft’s servers, you cannot play the games you paid for. Sorry … too bad – but remember it is being done FOR YOUR BENEFIT and you will feel better. Playing someone else’s games, that is.

Of course, the flip side is worse – even if you are connected and fine, if Ubisoft’s DRM server reboots or goes dark momentarily for any reason, no one will be able to play their games.

Oh, except the pirates, they’ll be fine.

Are Ubisoft trying to kill PC gaming?
One theory states that piracy is such a problem on PC that they’d prefer to move their customers to the Xbox or PS3. Their spokesperson disagrees. “No, we’re not trying to kill the PC market. Are we frustrated by the PC market? I think everyone is. In the end it all comes back to one single truth: piracy is a big, huge, hairy problem. It’s a market that suffered a lot because of piracy, and we’re all just trying to figure out what we think is the best way to deal with it.”

Piracy exists and is real, but so is the fact that the only people who are hurt by these moves are paying customers. I don’t know how many times I have already heard folks say “THIS is why I no longer game on a PC” since Ubisoft’s announcement.

HOWEVER, think of some of the best-selling PC games over the last few years? Fallout 3, The Sims 3, Dragon Age: Origins, and so on. What do they all have in common? Simple DVD-check DRM systems. No elaborate cloak & dagger, assumption of guilt, phoning home systems. Were those games pirated heavily? Most assuredly – but the fact is that the high quality and fan service of those games appealed to gamers, who were in turn willing to pay to obtain them.

Look at Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise – the first one was a late-arriving, blatant console port that was barely optimized for the PC. The second game is also designed for consoles and has been out for months and is only now getting ready to arrive on the PC. And while both of these games were well discounted on consoles before they arrived for PC, they will start at full price. Add those factors to the draconian and anti-consumer DRM and you see a system designed to fail.

PCG: What I think a lot of us would really like is a firm commitment that you understand our worries that the servers are going to go down and suddenly we’ve just got some trash data on our hard drives that we’ve paid for.

Ubisoft: The system is made by guys who love PC games. They play PC games, they are your friends.

In other words, TRUST US. Sorry … but I don’t trust you – because you are treating me and every other PC gamer like a criminal. I spend a ton of money on games each year, but perhaps my wallet will be a bit heavier at the end of the year because until they revoke this system I will not buy a Ubisoft PC game, and even if I get a review copy you can be sure that the DRM will factor heavily in my assessment.

Source: CVG Online